Left-armer named player of the match for Delhi Capitals, right-armer strikes hammer blow for RCB
The enduring quality of Australia’s veteran pace bowling maestros has come to the fore once more as Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc helped fire their IPL sides to crucial victories.
Hazlewood, even while not at his Sunday best, still struck the hammer blow at Dharamsala when needed, taking the vital wicket of his dangerous Punjab Kings compatriot Marcus Stoinis and then bowling two mean death overs to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru secure their 23-run win.
Then later on Sunday, Starc powered in to take three wickets in four balls and win the player-of-the-match award with his 4-40 as Delhi Capitals kept their hopes alive with a five-wicket home win over Rajasthan Royals.
Hazlewood was key to RCB’s triumph last year, and along with his fellow quick Bhuvneshwar Kumar, has again been instrumental in rocketing them to the top of the standings, as they became the first team to book their place in the playoffs.
Fellow Aussie Tim David also continues to do his bit, coming in to play his usual destructive finisher’s role after Virat Kohli (58), Devdutt Padikkal (45) and Venkatash Iyer (73no) had laid the foundations.
David smacked 28 off 12, with a couple of sixes, at the death to propel RCB to 4-222, which always seemed beyond Punjab with Kumar (2-38) and Hazlewood (1-36) in tandem, aided by impact sub Rasikh Salam who took 3-36 from his allocation.
Cooper Connolly threatened for the Ricky Ponting-guided side with his 37 off 22 balls, and Stoinis had moved ominously on to 37 with five boundaries when Hazlewood pinned him lbw with a knee high full toss that might have been his worst ball of the day. Stoinis couldn’t have looked more disgusted.
When Shashank Singh fell for 56 off 27 balls to Rasikh, the game was up for Punjab, who could make only 8-199 and are looking increasingly like missing out on the playoffs after losing a sixth game on the bounce.
Later, at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Starc got a bit of the now expected hard time when bowling to wonder boy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who smacked 46 off 21 balls, including a six and a four off the Aussie’s second over.
But once the 15-year-old departed, life became much easier for Delhi, and Starc went to work in the 15th over, getting captain Riyan Parag caught on the long-on boundary when he was in full flow on 51 and repeating the trick next ball to dismiss the potentially menacing Donovan Ferreira.
Starc missed out on delivering his yorker spot-on with his hat-trick ball, but his slower cutter then deceived Ravi Singh second ball and had him trapped lbw, ripping out the heart of the Rajasthan innings at 5-165.
They ended 8-193, which proved little problem for Delhi, once Abishek Porel (51 off 31) and KL Rahul (56 off 42) set them on course, with skipper Axar Patel doing the hard finishing yards with his 34no off 18 that took the hosts to 5-197 with four balls remaining.
IPL 2026 standings
Australians in IPL 2026
Chennai Super Kings: Matt Short ($255k), Spencer Johnson ($255k, replaces Nathan Ellis ($340k))
Delhi Capitals: Mitchell Starc ($2m)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Josh Hazlewood ($2.13m), Tim David ($510k)
Punjab Kings: Marcus Stoinis ($1.9m), Ben Dwarshuis ($745k), Mitchell Owen ($510k), Cooper Connolly ($510k), Xavier Bartlett ($136k)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Cameron Green ($3.5m)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins ($3.5m), Travis Head ($2.38m), Jack Edwards ($510k, withdrawn)
Lucknow Super Giants: Josh Inglis ($1.49m), Mitchell Marsh ($578k)
